Well, here we are at chapter eight…I don't have much to say right now, so let's just get to the story shall we?

Again, I don't own HP.

Again, thank you to All-Knowing Alien for being my Beta and being patient with my constant misspelling.

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Chapter Eight

A couple weeks later, Harry, Mariana, Katriana, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna all went to Diagon Alley with Snape and Lupin as chaperones. They were going to get Luna and Neville's supplies since the both of them (understandably) hadn't been able to before. As they shopped, they met up with their Housemates, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.

Harry took a double take when he looked at Seamus, but sighed as he realized the green glow around Seamus was still there. 'Great,' he thought to himself, 'Seamus is better than Malfoy for sure, but I still don't like the idea of it.'

Mariana heard Harry sigh and asked him what was wrong, nodding knowingly when he told her, and relaying the news to Katriana who stood on her other side. The two girls were introduced to Dean and Seamus, and Katriana informed her siblings that she seemed to have three prospective mates so far, as Dean had a blue glow about him.

"How many more do you think we'll have?" Harry whispered to them, tugging at his black hair, which had been charmed to make the gold streaks in his hair disappear.

Katriana shrugged as they walked to Gringotts. They had learned that they had more than the one vault Harry had always used, and had been asked to come look them over.

"I, for one," she said as they walked up the marble steps to the bank, "am surprised that we've each found more than one in such a short amount of time. We should be able to start smelling our mate by now."

Mariana sighed as the last sentence was said, and stated, "I don't like that idea. I mean, getting tied down to someone for all your life at 17? It's a little young, don't you think?" The other two nodded as a goblin approached them. The others in their little group, except for Remus, had all left and to do their own shopping, figuring it would take awhile.

Harry recognized the goblin as Griphook, and said, "We are the Potters… We were told that we had vaults that we needed to look over now that we're of age..?"

Griphook nodded and answered, "Yes, you have been taking money from your school vault, which was set up as soon as you were born. Besides that, the Potters have four other vaults. You, Mr. Potter, have six other vaults that previously belonged to the Black family and are yours now that the last of the Blacks is dead and you were named the heir."

For a moment Harry was confused. Then, he remembered that to keep the 'ex-convict' safe, they had made it seem that Sirius had died that night in the Department of Mysteries. The person who had actually fallen through the veil was a Death Eater the Order had caught (and who had been placed under the influence of the Imperius Curse and Polyjuice Potion). Harry had never learned the Death Eater's name, and didn't wish to know, so he pushed his thoughts of that night to the back of his mind so he could concentrate on Griphook and what the Gringotts goblin was saying.

Mariana leaned over and whispered into Harry's ear, "Isn't Snuffles' last name Black?" She used the nickname for Sirius all the time because she was fond of it. After she had first heard of it, she had never again called him by his first name.

Harry glanced at her and whispered back, "I'll explain later. Just don't say anything." Mariana nodded and conveyed this to Katriana, who nodded as well and stayed silent as they were led into a room. Griphook sat down in a chair and indicated that Harry, his sisters, and Remus, should do the same.

They sat down and Griphook started to speak again, "Your family vaults include random books and artifacts that your parents, and their family before them, owned in their lifetimes, and around 500 million Galleons, not including the Knuts and Sickles. You also have three houses, one Ireland, one in Scotland, and the one you already know about, Godric Hollow."

He shuffled papers about before continuing, "From the Blacks, you have around 700,550,000 Galleons, again, excluding the Knuts, and Sickles, but just the one house, which you seem to already know about. They sold all of their other houses a long time ago; deciding that having one was enough unless they felt the need to move. Again, you also have a wide variety of books and artifacts that you can look over whenever you wish. Would you like to have a particular Goblin to look over your finances for good? It has only ever been done by random Goblins over the years since neither of the families decided to hire any specific ones."

Harry nodded and answered, "We'll look over the vaults a couple days before we go back to school, then we can take some books and money to school with us. Also, I think- if you don't mind- that you would be best for looking over our vaults since I've worked with you many times over the years."

Griphook nodded, saying, "I would be honored to work with you Mr. Potter, and, the two Ms. Potters, of course. I will be expecting you on August 29th if that is alright with you three; all you would need to do is tell any of the Goblins that I am expecting you and they will bring you to me. Then we will go over each of your vaults. I believe the Portkeys to each of the Potter homes are in one of the vaults, but I am not sure which." The four thanked Griphook, shook hands with the goblin, and left Gringotts after making a withdrawal. They met up with their 'troupe' again.

Mariana's eyes suddenly went wide and she sniffed the air. She looked between Snape and Neville, quickly, and then turned to her sister, burying her head in Katriana's neck.

"What's wrong Mari?" Katriana asked, petting her sister's head comfortingly.

"I smell my mate…" Mariana said sadly, "The problem is, I can't figure out which one it is, the Professor or Neville. Their standing too close to each other and I'd have to get closer to them, like right up to them, to figure out which one it is. I'm guessing, from what I'm feeling, that once we smell our mate, we feel horribly sad until…well, I don't know. I just feel really sad right now. Can we hurry home? Maybe around there, when those two avoid each other a lot, I'll be able to figure it out."

Then, a voice called out, "Draco! What are you doing with THEM!" It was Pansy Parkinson, accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle.

Draco sighed and said, "I kind of have to, Pansy, so why don't you just leave? They're more fun to hang out with than you three anyways."

"You mean to tell me," Pansy started, "That even Longbottom here," and at this she punctuated it by poking Neville in the chest, "Is more fun to be around?"

Mariana growled at Pansy and stepped in front of Neville, who looked at Mariana in confusion. She flexed her fingers, where her new claws had emerged when she had snarled.

Pansy stared at Mariana, then, catching sight of her claws, asked "What kind of freak is this?" She didn't get to say anything else, nor get an answer, as Snape had moved forward and grabbed Pansy, dragging her off, Crabbe and Goyle following dutifully. Harry and Katriana grabbed Mariana by the arms to stop her from going after them.

"Calm down, Mari," Harry said, "He's fine, see? Neville's fine. She didn't do him any harm!" Hermione looked at them, realization dawning on her and she grinned as Snape came back.

"Well," Snape said, "I guess we all know one of Mariana's-," Before he could continue Harry had clapped a hand over Snape's mouth, shaking his head fiercely. Snape glared at Harry, but nodded, indicating that he wouldn't say anything more, letting Harry take his hand away.

All the girls had huge grins on their faces, while the boys had absolutely no clue as to what was going on and just shrugged at each other, as boys were wont to do in such situations. Katriana chuckled and looked at her sister, who was calming down.

Mariana sighed and pulled her claws back into her fingers, wincing as they did so, and said, "That kind of hurts, you know? Oh well. Can we go home now?" Her eyes were downcast now, and she seemed to lose all the energy she had had earlier. Harry and Katriana looked at her, silently worrying.

Everyone headed home, and as soon as she stepped out of the fireplace, Mariana ran up to her room, where she shut herself in, only letting Harry and Katriana in when they followed her.

Hermione looked at Ginny and Luna anxiously, saying, "I wonder what's wrong with Mariana? I hope she'll be alright, school starts in a week." Luna and Ginny nodded before going to help Molly with dinner.

Mariana paced inside the trio's room, as Harry and Katriana sat on their beds, waiting for her to stop and talk to them.

A knock came at the door, and Harry opened it a bit to see Neville outside it with Draco at his side. The scent of Vanilla and some sort of sweet flower attacked Harry's senses and he inwardly groaned as he heard Katriana ask Mariana if her neck was ok. Harry turned around to see that Mariana had turned her head to face the door so quickly that she had hurt herself slightly. (Beta: Whiplash!)

'Well,' Harry thought to himself, 'This answers the question of who Mariana's and my mate is. But…why does it have to be Malfoy?…Although, he is hot… NO! Bad Harry!' He shook his head and looked back at the two boys at the door, trying hard not to jump Draco, as his faerie/tiger side really itched to do at the moment.

"Do you two need something?" Harry asked them, opening the door a little more, letting them into the room.

"We just wanted to see if everything was alright," Draco said, looking at Harry, "Mari wasn't looking too good, and she ran up here pretty quickly."

Mariana smiled at them nervously, answering, "I'm fine, and I just wasn't feeling well for a moment. It's gone now, though. Thanks for your concern." The two boys nodded, as Harry moved over to Mariana, leaning his head on her shoulder.

"I know how you feel now," He said to her as he lifted his head, a hand reaching around to scratch at his back where his concealed wings were threatening to come out. Katriana watched the two, concerned, then just smiled at Neville and Draco gently as they sat down on Harry's bed.

Katriana moved to shut the door, when Mrs. Weasley appeared and said, "Dinner's ready if you want. Fred and George just got back from work; they'll be staying here for the remainder of summer vacation, studying with Hermione. I say with Hermione just because she'll actually make sure they study to be ready for the first day of school." Katriana laughed as the other occupants in the room came up behind her and followed Mrs. Weasley to the kitchen to eat.

As soon as Katriana entered the kitchen, she stiffened as the sweet smell of a flower and the smell of fresh-air-after-it-rains hit her senses and she almost groaned, but held it back. She looked at the twins, thinking, 'Great, I knew it would be one of those two…now to find out which one. I think I like this mate idea more and more, but Mari was right, I am sad now. I wonder why…' Her thoughts trailed off as Mariana, who had easily figured out why she had stopped, dragged her to her seat at the end of the table.

After dinner, when Harry, Mariana, and Katriana were getting ready for bed, Mariana asked them, "Hey, do you think we should tell anyone who our mates are just yet? I know we're not going to tell our actual mates, especially since Katriana has no idea which twin is her mate, and we want to get to know them better first, but shouldn't we tell one of the adults? Headmaster Dumbledore, maybe? He might know a little more about our race than the book shows, maybe he knows where those missing pages are, or at least, what information they contain." Harry and Katriana both agreed and they together decided that they would talk to Dumbledore in the morning when he came by the house with Harry's Head of House, and went to sleep, devoid of nightmares.

When they talked to Dumbledore the next morning after breakfast, in the presence of all the residents of No. 3 Grimmauld Place, Mariana started by saying, "We wanted to know if you knew anything else about the Japanese Tiger Faeries that the book might not have told us, or couldn't tell us, since the last 10 pages or so were ripped out. We want to know because we've each figured out, for the most part, who our mates are, but we have a slight problem that we want to know is normal."

"Well," Dumbledore started, "What's the problem? I might be able to help if I knew that."

"Each of us got extremely sad when we started smelling our mate, and now it won't go away," Harry said, sitting on the couch next to Draco, with Katriana next to him and Mariana sitting by the window so she could bask in the sunlight.

Dumbledore stroked his beard for a minute then, answered, "That is normal for young tiger faeries. You've just realized that your mate is close and within reach, but also know you can't have them yet, and that creates a void in you. Until you get with your mates, that void will be there, and the pain or sadness will only get worse as time goes on, so I should think that by the time school starts, it might be unbearable for all three of you."

Harry, Katriana, and Mariana looked at each other, slight fear evident on their faces. Draco pat Harry's back in sympathy, making Harry jump at the sudden contact from his mate. Draco pulled his hand back quickly, looking pained for a moment, before his emotionless mask fell into place.

Harry resisted the urge to grab Draco's hand or to hug him and instead smiled at him gently before looking back at Dumbledore, who was looking at Harry with a knowing look on his face. Harry grinned back at him as he scratched his back again, feeling the wings trying to free themselves.

"Oh, and one more thing that used to be in the book," Dumbledore said after watching Harry scratch his back, "When you come really close to your mate, or touch them, your wings will want to appear. When it does, just let it happen because it will itch a lot if you keep them from coming out of your back."

Harry sighed in relief, as did Katriana and Mariana, as all three of them let their wings out. It was the first time any of the other teenagers had seen the trio's wings and they all gasped at them. Fred moved to Katriana as George moved over to Mariana and they touched the girl's wings, both saying that the wings were awesome. Katriana sighed and her wings started to flutter madly when Fred let go of her wings, and she grinned, thinking, 'That was easier than I thought,' before looking at her sister, where Luna had begun to scratch behind her cat ears, which, Katriana observed, had appeared on top of her own head and Harry's head as well.

"How'd we get the ears?" Katriana asked, before purring when Ginny decided to scratch them as well.

"I don't really remember it all," Dumbledore said, "But, I think it has to do with you each being close to bonding with your mate. In most cases, bonding is when you physically bond with your mate or have intercourse with them, if you will. In your cases, however, bonding takes place by the three days of almost constant touching." The three faeries nodded, Mariana and Katriana still purring while being scratched.

Ginny's eyes lit up as she thought of something, and said, "Hey Fred, why don't you try petting Katriana's ears? They're really soft." Katriana glared at Ginny a minute, realizing that Ginny had figured out who her mate was, but once again started to purr as Fred started to pet her ears. Unconsciously, she started leaning into him, her body wanting the physical touch.

Fred watched Katriana, as the girl's eyes closed and she leaned into his touch, and he smiled. The group was brought out of their reverie by someone clearing their throat.

It was Dumbledore, who said, "I think we're done here, so I'm going to head back to the castle with Professor McGonagall. Good day, everyone." He left and everyone else headed to do whatever, each of them swimming in their own thoughts.

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Wow! I got 6 pages done this time, that's a record for me. I'll get it longer in the future I promise. I hope you like this chapter, and once again, REVIEW! Please? I'd really like some gives the reader a puppy dog face